Drink more water, and use reusable mugs and dining-ware.

If you are like most people in the U.S., you typically consume more than 400 bottles and cans of beverages per year, and twice that many paper cups. Unfortunately, the impact of U.S. citizens consuming several hundred billion containers a year, as well as 400 billion paper cups, is a legacy of wasted glass, plastic, metal and paper containers, and considerable energy consumed and pollution released from mining, logging, processing, refining, shipping, shaping, storing, refrigerating and disposing the materials that went into producing them.

The American College of Sports Medicine notes that drinking an extra 1.5 quarts of water per day (six 8-oz glasses) while dieting will maximize the loss of fat as a percentage of total weight lost. According to the Good Health Advisory Board, "water is the most essential ingredient for the process of digestion of food and helps the body maintain proper muscle tone.

In fact, drinking water may help to prevent sagging skin, which often follows a dramatic weight loss. When we're properly hydrated, the efficiency of our cardiovascular system improves. Water helps to process foods high in fiber and even acts as a lubricant for joints. Drink water, lose weight and maintain your health." So switching from canned and bottles sodas to drinking water from reusable mugs not only cuts down on pollution, but is also good for you, too.

For home, you can access reports about the quality of your residence's tap water at the EPA Surf Your Watershed web site. And whether the water in your region meets or exceeds EPA's drinking water standards, you still may want to consider installing a water filter on your kitchen faucet to remove any odors, bad tastes, trihalomethanes, or heavy metals from old plumbing pipes in your building.

When you drink any beverages remember to use reusable mugs and glasses rather than paper or plastic cups. In addition, consider carrying your own mug, and silverware or chopsticks, when you eat outside the home at places that use disposable utensils; and at the very least, recycle for reuse the plastic ware you do use rather than throwing it immediately in the trash.

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